Thrills

by K. T. Tomb

  Andrik did as he was told without offering any response or greeting.

  “I’ve assembled some assets to help you,” Emery said, getting straight to the point of their meeting. “These MIs have agreed to follow your command and perform exactly as you direct them to. They know the penalty for not cooperating.”

  Emery’s tone was daunting and Andrik felt his nerves tighten. He swallowed hard and did his very best to remain composed as he responded.

  “Our objectives are very clear and we will be working alongside Liu Lichuan. His intent is to weaken Han Ba’s position as well as rescue our MI agent.”

  “That is acceptable,” Emery responded. “Any actions outside of that scope are likely to cause some serious problems. Understood?”

  “Clearly,” Andrik responded.

  “Alfred Covington and I are very similar in what we do, Andrik. As long as MIs play within the rules, we leave them alone.” The comment was meant to relax Andrik a bit, but it served as a warning as well.

  “Thank you for your help,” Andrik responded. “We will play within the rules, I assure you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  In the beginning, when Nora had been captured and carried to Ningpo, she had been furious.

  Being bound for several days had not helped her outlook in the least and she had despised Han Ba from the first moment that she met her. Once she had met the ancient MI, she began to realize that it was quite likely that it was Han Ba who was pulling the strings in the Heavenly Kingdom rather than Hong Xiuquan. Recognizing an opportunity to take an even deeper look into the rebellion and its true strength, she had determined to play along and gather more information for MI-6. Reporting to Andrik was going to be an issue and she knew that he would be worried about her, but it was a circumstance that could not be changed and things would have to be sorted at a later time. Besides, hadn’t Andrik admitted that he trusted her? The focus of the mission has changed a bit, she reasoned.

  Liu Lichuan was not necessarily bad. From what Liu and Han Ba told her about Hong Xiuquan, he seemed like he was trying to do what was right for the people of China. Han Ba had nothing but good things to say about both men and she even spoke about how tragic it was that Yang had been removed because the rumors that had been spread about him had caused a rift in the organization of the Heavenly Kingdom.

  The various aspects of what was involved in the Taiping Rebellion had Nora’s head spinning. In the back of her mind, she could still hear the voice of Alfred Covington as he talked about Her Majesty’s interests. They were, of course, to maintain the status quo, which allowed the Nanking Treaty and the five ports provided to the realm to remain open to the sale and trade of opium. After having spent time with both Liu and Han Ba, Nora could not see that either of them posed any sort of threat to the foreign concessions at Shanghai.

  As her time in Ningpo approached more than a week without any contact with Andrik or anyone else on the outside, Han Ba had not turned out to be anything like what Nora had expected; in fact, she’d begun to feel a lot more comfortable with her as she’d gotten to know her better. It didn’t hurt that Han Ba seemed to share the same deep running passions concerning the destructiveness of opium. Her conversation with Andrik at Bracksea had repeated itself in her head several times during the past days.

  “It is horrible stuff!” Nora had exclaimed.

  “I don’t doubt that it is, Nora,” Andrik had responded.

  “I nearly destroyed myself completely because of opium, Andrik! Once you are addicted to it, it is impossible to break the habit. I tried to break the habit over and over again. I do not doubt that had Alfred not come along when he did and snatched me away from it, I would still be waking up in Emma’s Opium Emporium and destroying my life further.”

  “I understand Nora, but—”

  “No, you don’t understand! If I had not been rescued from it, it would have killed me. Perhaps it wouldn’t have killed me in months or even years, but it would have worn me down eventually and caused my ultimate demise; a demise that would have been very permanent, mind you.”

  “Look, Nora, I’m not defending opium in any way, but we have to keep in mind what our true mission is all about. It’s not really about the opium; it’s about maintaining the interests of Her Majesty and the Realm. British companies and the government of Her Majesty depend upon the taxes and tariffs related to the trade of opium within China. Our duty is to help maintain the status quo, which has nothing to do with the damaging effects of the product being sold.”

  “I fully understand our duty, Andrik, but in a way, I am fighting for its continued legalization, while I ought to be doing everything under my power to make certain that it did not get into the hands of those who might be destroyed by it.”

  “Are you aware that by suggesting that you ought to fight against opium’s legalization, you are in direct conflict with Her Majesty’s policies and therefore walking the fine line of treason?”

  “Do you truly believe that I would commit treason?”

  She remembered the silence while they glared at each other as vividly as she had remembered the words they’d spoken, especially the ultimate admission of Andrik.

  “No, I do not believe that you would commit treason, but you are going to have to find a way to come to terms between your personal feelings concerning opium and the mission for which we are tasked. To do otherwise might cause significant problems for the success of our mission as well as cost one or the other of us our lives.”

  Andrik had certainly been right in some aspects, but in others, he was not. Though she had no desire to commit treason against the realm, isn’t there some way to battle against the opium trade in China without committing treason against Her Majesty? The thought rattled her a little bit. The thoughts she was having were dancing right around the edge of treason. Something is wrong with me. I’m not thinking clearly. I’m here to do my duty to Her Majesty. Even as she tried to shake the errant thoughts from her head, her personal hatred of opium still lingered in her thoughts.

  “Han Ba wished to see you,” Zhou, a servant of Han Ba, called out to her from the door to the chamber she had been given to stay in while she was in Ningpo. His call interrupted her thoughts and she responded to his call.

  “Allow me a few moments to freshen up and bit, and then I will join you,” she responded.

  “She assumed you would say that and ordered me to wait for you.”

  Nora laughed softly. Han Ba knew her so well. “I will only take a moment then.”

  She quickly changed into one of the beautiful dresses Han Ba had provided for her. Her hostess seemed to know exactly what colors brought out her most attractive features, which increased her delight whenever she was afforded a chance to see herself in the large, crystal clear pool in the garden between her chamber and that of Han Ba. She recalled how Alfred had promised her that she would be dressing in the finest fashions and giggled as she opened her chamber door and joined the servant who had been sent to retrieve her.

  “Stunning as usual,” Zhou commented as he escorted her down the hallway to the opening which led into the garden.

  Nora paused and looked at her reflection in the water, smiling at the fact that she really did look stunning, and then continued alongside Zhou to the chamber where Han Ba would meet with her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It would have been a great deal more comforting to know whether or not Miko and some of the New Order MIs were in his ranks before they launched their attack, but Andrik feared that they were running out of time and they simply could not wait. The local MIs met with him after sunset in the same place where he and Nora were supposed to have had their meeting more than a week before. They were an eager-looking bunch who were probably bored and had come along to break the monotony of blending in among mortals in their various capacities.

  As Andrik looked over the group before him, who Hadrian had called locals, he could barely tell that they were MIs. In fact, except that they would hav
e to pass a very basic test for MIs in order to join him in the attack on Ningpo, he would have sworn that a large portion—if not all of them—were nothing more than mortals with a desire to be MIs.

  “Thank you for volunteering to help me out,” Andrik said, addressing the group as they gathered around him.

  “Who says we volunteered?” a burly Brit responded from the back of the group.

  The whole group laughed at the comment.

  “You know how volunteering works in the army,” a man with a distinctly Southern American accent called out.

  His comment brought a chorus of laughter and additional comments as well.

  “However you came to be here or for whatever reason you are motivated to be here,” Andrik began, “I want you to understand that our two mission objectives are very clear. We will work with Liu Lichuan and his men from the Small Sword Society—”

  “Do they really have small swords, as in daggers, or is their name referring to a particular part of their anatomy?” the burly Brit called out again.

  “You are asking the wrong person,” Andrik responded with a smile. “I have not had the opportunity to measure them.”

  The entire group roared with laughter and Andrik could tell that the comment had won them over. It had been accomplished in a rather odd way, but it was something that he had hoped to do from the outset.

  “Anyway, our objective is to support the SSS in an assault on a position in Ningpo,” Andrik began again. “We do not know whether we’ll be facing mortals or immortals. If they are mortals, we will leave them to the SSS, but if they are immortals, the SSS will need us to keep the immortals off of them as they carry out the mission. Understood?”

  “If they are those little hopping zombie things, they won’t bother the SSS or us much,” a deep voice from among the group declared. “Those flying ones will be a little tough to deal with though.”

  “Whichever immortals engage the SSS, we have clearance to engage them, but we are not to attack any mortals. That is part of the agreement I’ve made with Emery and you all know the consequence of failing to, as he put it, play within the rules.”

  Andrik waited a few beats for the warning to sink in before continuing.

  “Our second objective is to rescue my partner. She is an MI who we suspect has been captured and is being held by Han Ba. She is quite distinctive in appearance, with coppery red hair that you cannot miss. I will select three of you to go with me to search for her and you will support me in extracting her. Do you understand?”

  “Can we volunteer?” the burly Brit asked.

  “You just did,” Andrik announced.

  The group laughed.

  “See, there’s that army volunteering thing again,” the man with the Southern accent called out.

  “And you also have volunteered,” Andrik laughed. “Do I have a third?”

  Though the group laughed, there were no further comments tossed out.

  “Very well. Maybe two is enough then.” He started to give the command to move out and then considered the unlikely possibility that Miko could arrive with support. “It is possible, though unlikely, that we might receive some support from some MIs, which may or may not arrive from the Crimea—”

  “You don’t sound too confident that they will arrive,” someone commented from the group.

  “We are a very long way from Crimea and they have only had, at maximum, four days to make the trip.” He started to turn away but turned back with a wide smile on his lips. “And we have our third volunteer as well.”

  Andrik’s assault team laughed and slapped the new volunteer on the back.

  “Alright,” Andrik commanded. “Spread out, find a safe place to transform into a flying form, and be ready to regroup on the southernmost dock in Ningpo harbor. From there, we will move out to meet Liu Lichuan and execute the assault. Move out!”

  The first phase of the mission had been pulled off without a hitch and Andrik’s assault team reassembled where they had been ordered. They were the same in number, and since it was impossible that a mortal could have made the trip in such a short period of time, it was very clear that all in the group were MIs. From the southernmost dock, they moved out to join up with Liu Lichuan and the men who had spent much of the day traveling with him from Shanghai to Ningpo.

  “We have scouts assessing the point of weakness we plan to take advantage of,” Lichuan told Andrik as the two groups joined up. The nervousness among the SSS was palpable. They had probably been briefed about the fact that they were to be facing MIs as well as being supported by MIs. As a rule, simply being near MIs had a tendency to make mortals nervous.

  “Very well,” Andrik replied. “If you are ready, let’s move out on your command.”

  “Move out!” Lichuan ordered without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Do we have an estimate of numbers?” Andrik asked as they began to advance toward the palace Han Ba had seized from the government of Ningpo.

  “Not an accurate one,” Lichuan answered.

  “That is not the least bit comforting, Liu,” Andrik replied.

  “That’s why we have you along,” he chuckled.

  Andrik hoped that his team could truly ensure Lichuan’s confidence.

  As they had taken up a concealed position just outside the area they intended to assault, they were surprised by the sudden presence of a cluster of rats, rushing out from an alley to one side.

  “Eyes open, MIs!” Andrik called out. “Those might be enemy MIs.”

  He had no sooner finished calling out before one of the rats quickly transformed into Miko, who strolled toward him with a self-confident grin on his face.

  “Still spreading lies about me, Andrik?” Miko chuckled.

  The relief he felt with the added presence of Miko caused him to join in his expression of mirth, and then he called out to his men. “They’re friends!”

  “Transform,” Miko called out.

  The wide-eyed expressions on the faces of the men of the SSS, including Lichuan, was priceless as the rats transformed into their immortal human forms.

  “They can really—” Lichuan started to ask.

  “They can,” Andrik interrupted. “Get it together, Liu, you have an assault to lead.”

  Andrik fluoresced as he spoke, giving Lichuan a much-needed boost of confidence.

  “Yes, of course,” he replied. “We are ready then.”

  Andrik and Miko nodded.

  “Move out!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  As the assault on the palace at Ningpo began, it was quite obvious that Han Ba’s main strength did not consist of mortals.

  As the Small Sword Society, supported by the two teams of MIs advanced, they were met by a light force of mortals, which the efficient SSS fighters easily dispatched. However, the next wave they faced as they moved forward consisted of the hopping, zombie-like jaingshi. Thousands of them streamed out from more than a dozen different openings along the palace wall on the side where Liu Lichuan had chosen to make the assault. They streamed out as rats and then transformed into their pale, zombie forms.

  Though the SSS dealt with the hopping jaingshi easily enough, they would have been quickly overrun by them had it not been for the presence of the two teams of MIs who went to work rapidly eliminating the threat they posed. Andrik and Miko’s MIs made sport of fighting, kicking off the heads of the jaingshi, keeping count and competing with each other as the number of jaingshi quickly diminished and the rats were no longer pouring out from the palace walls.

  “I think they know we’re here,” Miko laughed during a lull.

  “I agree,” Andrik responded.

  “So, do we have any idea where they are keeping Nora?” Miko asked.

  “No, but I think it would be a good time for me and my volunteers to go look,” Andrik answered.

  “I suppose you want me to stay here in support of the troops while you make your daring rescue, then?”

  “I got her into this,” Andrik re
plied. “I’ll get her out.”

  “And I’ll come get you out,” Miko laughed.

  “Not this time,” Andrik growled and then turned to call out to the team of MIs who had reassembled near him. “Volunteers, let’s go.”

  Andrik transformed into a bat and the three volunteers quickly followed suit as they advanced deeper into the palace. They were barely out of sight of the main assault team when they heard all hell break loose in their direction. From what Andrik could gather with his hypersensitive hearing, the flying jaingshi had arrived. I hope they can keep them busy long enough for us to find Nora.

  Andrik and his three volunteers flew down a long hallway, turned and came to a garden with a very large reflecting pool in its center. There was a covered corridor down either side of the garden and what appeared to be a larger, main hall at the far end. He retreated back into the hallway they had just exited and quickly transformed.

  He wasted little time giving direction to the volunteers who had transformed around him. “You and I will scurry down the left corridor,” Andrik said, indicating the burly Brit. “While you to scurry down the right corridor. We’ll meet near the opening of the larger hallway at the other end of the garden.”

  All nodded their consent, and then they quickly transformed back into bats and separated. It did not take long for Andrik and the Brit to scout out all of the rooms along the left corridor. Nora was in none of them, nor did there seem to be any sign of her. Maybe she’s not here, he told himself. Maybe Han Ba has already… Andrik didn’t finish the thought. There was no point in it and he certainly wasn’t ready to face that great fear. With the Brit in tow, he hurried to the spot where they were to meet the other two.

  “Nothin’,” the American with the Southern accent stated with some emphasis as the four of them transformed into their natural form before the large hallway.